K-ARTIST:Re: [Kopete-devel] plugin icons in Kopete -- trademark/copyright issue?
ante
kde-policies@mail.kde.org
Sun, 16 Feb 2003 15:17:10 +0100
On Sunday 16 February 2003 09:24, Nick Betcher wrote:
> > Currently Kopete is using icons that are presumably copyrighted and
> > trademarked by AOL, Microsoft and ICQ. Despite this being a common
>
> AFAIK the ICQ icons aren't copyrighted (they're not the AOL ones, even
> though they are familiar).
That is impossible. The one that made the icon automatically has the
copyright. I guess you want to say it was made by a KDE artist, and by
sending it to KDE he gave KDE permission to use and license it. In that case
there is no copyright problem. There may be a trademark problem.
>
> > practice in OSS IM applications, I am dubious of its legality -- unless
> > there is somewhere a license for these things that I am unaware of.
>
> Again, AFAIK there is no license that I have come across explicitly denying
> the use of icons from a certain program. Granted "The Running Man" *is*
> copyrighted, the icon itself is probably not.
Licenses are not denying rights, they grant rights (= license). Fully
automatically everything is forbidden under copyright laws, just by making
something. Only the maker has full rights.
> The best idea at this point would be to actually research which icons are
> and aren't copyrighted and ask the owners of the non-copyrighted ones if we
> could use them. I will start this later today (it's 2:30am here, time to go
> to bed) when I wake up.
Again, all icons are copyrighted, unless the copyright was explicitely waved.
There is just one thing to be researched first: were the used icons drawn by
KDE artists? If yes, there are no direct copyright problems. Second question:
are the icons interpretations, are there enough changes. If yes, there are no
copyright problems.
There still may be trademark problems. I suggest to first find out what
should be done. Do not start with asking the companies.
Cordialemente,
Ante
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